From ALMA to the world: our speakers at the SPIE conference

Jul 31, 2024 | News | 2 comments

Tags: ALMA

☆☆☆☆☆
When Emiliano woke up, his curtains were open and the sun was already up. He got up ready to have breakfast, until he realized that no one was awake because it was five o’clock in the morning. Of course, he was about to participate in the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation conference, organized this year in Yokohama, Japan.
“That’s when I understood why it’s called the Empire of the Rising Sun. If there is no mountain range, and the sun rises on the sea side and you are in the bay, at five o’clock in the morning the sun is rising,” laughs Emiliano Galuppo, our Array Operator.
Emiliano was one of the four ALMA exhibitors who presented their papers in person at the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation conference of the International Society for Optics and Photonics, the most valuable technical event for ground, airborne and space telescopes, held from June 16 to 21 of this year.
In his case, he talked about the software tools that have been created to facilitate the area’s operations: alarms, panels, registers, wrappings, to make procedures more automated. Emiliano showed how the tools are generating solutions in the day-to-day operation.

“In general, in all the ALMA talks, like mine, there were quite a lot of people. It is a very valuable experience for the other observatories that are in earlier stages and, when you are not exhibiting, you go to the other talks and you are nourished by that. You share the experiences of all the observatories, things that have been worthwhile and even the problems”, says Emiliano.

Vicente Coopman, our Front Line Software Support Engineer, also presented at SPIE, who spoke about the Log Detector, a tool developed internally in the operations group, capable of detecting known problems automatically, monitoring relevant processes for the observatory and generating statistics.

There, Vicente was able to get to know a country with a culture very different from Chile: “Japan was very entertaining, many things different from ours, which undoubtedly attract attention. I visited several temples and museums, bought a bike and traveled from Kyoto to Tokyo, climbed Mount Fuji, among others”.

And he was also able to broaden his view of the astronomical field: “It was a great experience, I was able to learn in more detail about the other observatories and have a broader idea about current astronomical projects. Particularly for me, it was great to be able to talk with people who worked on the foundations of what ALMA is today”, adds Vicente.

At the conference, our speakers were able to meet again with former ALMA colleagues, such as Bernhard López, Mauricio Zambrano and Juan Pablo Gil.

It was a great opportunity to share success stories with colleagues from all over the world, says Rubén Soto, our Software Operations Manager, who spoke about the transition his group made from a face-to-face work model to a hybrid format: “This is a very hot topic in the computer systems area, since there are several companies that have opted for this new work modality. That is why I think that sharing our experience from an astronomical observatory is something quite attractive and important to know,” he says.

“Presenting at an international conference where several prestigious institutions participate is always a challenge, a big responsibility, but I think we were able to accomplish it quite well. I hope that we can encourage more people from our organization to participate in this type of conference, because it helps us to grow professionally”, concludes Rubén.

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2 Comments

  2. Héctor Marroquín
    Héctor Marroquín on July 31, 2024 at 6:12 pm

    Mis felicitaciones al grupo de ALMA que participó en el SPIE. Me alegra mucho ver que hayan nuevos expositores presentando nuevas soluciones a los problemas que vivimos día a día. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

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